


cast stones against the wind

by rybari



Category: Trollhunters (Cartoon)
Genre: M/M, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-22
Updated: 2018-08-22
Packaged: 2019-07-01 01:44:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,118
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15764052
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rybari/pseuds/rybari
Summary: Aaarrrgh maybe likes Blinky far more than he had originally planned.





	cast stones against the wind

**Author's Note:**

> I may or may not continue depending on my ability to, write! Schools been kicking my ass lately. But I couldn't resist writing troll husbands.

When Aarrrgh realizes, it’s a little after midnight, and he’s loping after Blinky’s swiftly retreating form. Tree branches whip at Aaarrgh’s horns, but he shrugs them off. Blinky has piled several library books ( _ “freely purloined!” “purloined?” “means taken without being detected!”)  _ in his arms, running as fast as his legs can take him.

“Imagine, Aarrrgh! Humans, utilizing libraries again! I had assumed that these ones were more – ach-” he catches his ankle on a tree root and tips -

Aarrrgh catches a book in his teeth, then catches Blinky with three fingers hooked in one of his suspenders. The distant sound of hoofbeats have faded in the past few minutes, but it would only take the humans a few minutes to find their trail.

“My thanks,” Blinky gives his shoulder a pat, and Aarrrgh gently sets him on the ground. “I believe we have lost them. And we have secured several important research artifacts in the process!”

“Keeping?” Aarrrgh asks. He casts an eye over the books. There weren’t many in the dusty building they had snuck into; there were certainly less than what Blinky owned.

Blinky scoffed. “No! Of course not. I shall return them at a later date. That’s even easier to do now that the humans don’t chain the things up anymore.”

Aarrrgh blinks, curious; he can’t see the reason anyone would use chains on books.

As always, Blinky seems to just – _know_ when Aarrrgh wants clarification. He reaches with one of his arms into his pocket for a horngazel and presses his chin to his stack of books to free up another arm for gesturing. “Back a century or two, in the Old Country, books were precious. The monks were ferocious, Aarrrgh! Many was the time I would flee their wrath. They were so fast despite being malnourished-"

(Aarrrgh wonders briefly if he should help, but Blinky is already drawing the portal. The book pile teeters dangerously.)

“-and they always kept bees, for some reason. Horrible things.” Blinky flicks the horngazel into his pocket. “They tasted awful, and that sticky garbage they secrete is even worse.”

Aarrrgh shuffles in after Blinky. The portal closes with a quiet sound. The crystal staircase blooms with light. No matter how many times he sees it, Aarrrgh still feels happy; that it’s almost home; that it’s a home with trolls like Blinky, that he doesn’t have to fight.

Blinky stops him with a small blue hand on his arm. “Thank you for indulging me, my dear friend. I don’t know what I’d do without you.” Blinky smiles, genuine, his eyes crinkling at the corners with affection. The warm light of the crystals almost make him glow, too. And Aarrrgh –

Aarrrgh says, “You too.”

There’s a sudden thrum in his chest when Blinky nods, grinning so hard his fangs show, and elbows him, saying something he can’t quite catch. Aarrrgh wants, more than anything in the world, to reach down and knock his horns against Blinky’s, to breathe in his scent, to get  _ closer.  _ It’s when Blinky turns and starts walking that Aarrrgh realizes he was probably staring for too long.

He forces himself to follow, but he can’t force himself to calm down. That’s when it starts.

==

While Aarrrgh will never be a reader, he’s seen Blinky and Vendel pull enough solutions out of books to know that it’s probably the best place to start. It also means he doesn’t have to talk to anyone about it yet. What happens to him when he looks at Blinky, or falls into easy step behind him, or they share a cup of grog at the tavern and he listens to another conspiracy theory – it’s still new. Delicate, like shale.

Unfortunately, Aarrrgh knows from watching Blinky catalogue every book in the library (a fit of boredom when a freak blizzard had snowed everyone in) that there will be very little he could use for this research.

A few days later, Aarrrgh holes himself up by the fire and pages through another romance novel Bagdwella recommended to him, with minimal success.

“What’s ‘amorous?’” he asks, out of habit.

“It means ‘romantic and affectionate’,” Blinky calls from the other side of the library. He pokes his head past a stack of books, and scowls. “Why are you reading that drivel?”

“Curious.” Aarrrgh says, squinting. The trolls in this novel had met on an exciting adventure and were about to die. The young adventuring troll was proclaiming her love just before they were to be smashed to pieces by Gumm-Gumms. Optimistically, Aarrrgh supposes, they  _ do  _ run into some sort of danger every month or so. If he must tell Blinky when they are both about to die, it’ll come up relatively soon. “What’s ‘nuzzling’?”

“I – Aarrrgh! Surely your parents - ? No, I suppose not.” Blinky makes a motion around his face. “It’s what Draal and Kanjigar do, sometimes. Two trolls touch their foreheads, or noses together! It’s a particularly demonstrative greeting.”

Aarrrgh flips the page. No, it’s definitely between the two heroines, Marutia and Konxi. And he remembers what he felt, strongly, at the crystal staircase. “Only between whelp and parent?”

Blinky flaps a hand. “No, no, mates can do it too, and family. I remember when Dictatious,” there’s a hitch in his voice, “and I used to when we were whelps. It’s calming.  _ Awfully  _ intimate, however.” With that, Blinky disappears, and the sound of a pen nib scratching starts up.

“Hmm.” Aarrrgh looks ahead. Marutia and Konxi nuzzle for at least two pages, and  _ hands  _ are involved at some point. Aarrrgh quietly decides to find different books. As Vendel would say, he needs better sources.

He puts the book down and lumbers over to Blinky’s side, where he’s putting together evidence of a new, more ravenous species of gnome. It’s been Blinky’s pet project for the past week; he’s positive this is how his supply of socks had been eaten. Aarrrgh, having never seen the socks, reasons that Blinky must be having fun with the conspiracy. There seem to be several books and sheets of paper strewn across the table, and Blinky is writing furiously.

Aarrrgh settles by the table, close to the fire. Like this, he’ll be able to doze unless Blinky has a eureka moment, or wakes him up to find some dinner. And, happily, Blinky combs a part of his fur out absently with his fingers while he works. It’s quiet, peaceful. As a young troll, Aarrrgh would not have dared to imagine that his life could contain peace.

Cracking one eye open, Aarrrgh thinks about laying a hand on Blinky’s cheek. The marbled blue of his living stone, under his palm.

Aarrrgh wants very badly to hit himself over the head.

 


End file.
